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GEW World Heavyweight Championship
The GEW World Heavyweight Championship, also referred to as the GEW World Championship, GEW Heavyweight Championship or simply GEW Championship, is Global Extreme Wrestling's top title. It has been active continuously since late 2001, with only minor periods of being vacated. Due to the GEW records fire in May 2006, much of the information on the title prior to that date is unknown; this page only lists champions from early 2005 onwards as information from prior to that point is too sketchy to be reliable. In addition to the reigns below, Knuckles is known to be a former champion. Currently, and pending further records being discovered, GEW management only recognises reigns by Knuckles, Jeff Hardy and Triple H prior to those on the list below. Eighteen different individuals are currently recognised as former or current World Heavyweight Champions by GEW. The current champion is Troy Gafgen, who is in his first reign. History Shawn Michaels' first reign is the earliest on record, although the two men most associated with it both before and after this point were Triple H and Jeff Hardy. The pair were at the centre of the major, promotion-wide feud which occupied the first half of 2005, as Hardy and his allies in Batista and The Rock did battle with Triple H's Hidden Fears stable, including Undertaker, Edge, Christian and Eric Bischoff. Following a brief hiatus in GEW's programming, Triple H and Hardy would eventually set aside their differences as Michaels returned to the main event scene, becoming a common enemy of both men. Michaels, however, would finally be defeated by Christopher Daniels, whose first and only reign is considered the final reign of GEW's old era. When GEW returned some months later the title was vacant and Triple H set about recovering it, only to be thwarted by Edge and Hollywood Bull. The three men feuded over the championship for some time, with Triple H emerging as the eventual victor. His next challenge came in the form of the young upstart K.C. McGrath, whose year-long rivalry with Triple H drew in many other main event superstars, including Michaels and Hardy, and is widely considered the single best feud in the promotion's history. Initially Triple H took McGrath under his wing, including giving McGrath a title shot after McGrath defeated (and butally beat) Michaels, which saw McGrath defeat Triple H for his first World Championship. A jealous Triple H would soon turn on McGrath and committed a number of atrocities against him including shooting him and running him down with a car. Triple H later defended his actions by alleging that he saw star potential in McGrath, and was trying to toughen him up. It would also emerge that McGrath had been having an affair with Triple H's wife, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. Triple H stepped down from full-time competition at around the same time McGrath was injured, leaving the World Heavyweight Championship vacant. In response McMahon-Helmsley, acting General Manager at the time, declared a promotion-wide tournament to crown a new champion, culminating in an elimination fatal fourway at Extreme Extravaganza 2007. The finalists were Jeff Hardy, The Rock, Tony Wright and Klown. Wright and Klown were already bitter rivals and at Extreme Extravaganza, Wright last eliminated Klown to be crowned the new champion, and the first in many years not to be somehow involved with Triple H. Wright's fairly lengthy reign saw him feud with Randy Orton, 5-7-3 and Venom. Venom would eventually unseat Wright, before leaving GEW after a substantial reign of his own. Newcomer Xavier Michaels was the next to attempt to claim the championship, but was challenged by the returning K.C. McGrath, now known as Kameron Chase. The battle between the two was exacerbated by claims that Xavier's sister Melissa Michaels (and it would later be revealed, his lover) had been raped by Chase. The feud between Chase and the Michaels siblings finally drew to a close when GEW Chaos Undisputed Champion Chase defeated World Heavyweight Champion Xavier in a unification match, only for former Chaos Undisputed Champion Randy Orton - bitter over having been denied the World Heavyweight Championship for years - to successfully exercise his rematch clause immediately after the match between Chase and Michaels. Chase switched his attention to Orton, a situation complicated by Chase's long-term girlfriend being Orton's sister Becky. The pair feuded for several months until, during a championship ladder match between them, Triple H made a surprise return, quickly followed by Jeff Hardy. The four men soon revealed a common goal: to rid GEW of the hardcore matches which had caused them so much injury over the years. They were opposed by The Dead Precedents, a stable of young hardcore wrestlers led by Baby Dogg and Phreak, and allied with Shawn Michaels, who had declared his intention to finally step of Triple H's shadow. During this period, as well as suspecting his team-mates of coveting his championship, Orton would battle Phreak, ultimately successfully. The stable war seemed to be over when Chase was named General Manager of Chaos by new owner Xavier Michaels, and revealed his part in it had been a double bluff, firing both Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Chase named newcomer Elijah Burke as #1 contender to Orton's title and in a shocking upset, Burke unseated Orton. Burke was defeated in turn by Adam Cage, who himself quickly lost the World Heavyweight Championship to the returning Triple H. Triple H and Chase's enmity reignited, and the pair went on to feud over the World Heavyweight Championship once more. Chase would eventually defeat Triple H for the title, but soon relinquished it due to successive injures. Chase steered his girlfriend Reese Black towards the championship, but she was defeated by James Magnum when Chase accidentally struck Black with a chair during the title match between Black and Magnum. Magnum has since gone on to have the most successful single reign in GEW history, holding the title for more than double the length of the next longest reign and defeating the likes of Black, Shawn Michaels, X-ecutioner, Scott Savage, Sah'ta Thor and Mark Chapman. At Extreme Extravaganza 2009, he was unseated by Baby Dogg after a three hundred day reign. Dogg successfully defeated Magnum in the rematch, but lose the belt back to him at a later date. Magnum defended the belt against Scott Simmonds which would prove to be a set-up, as Simmonds aligned himself with Magnum, but at the following pay-per-view, Magnum was defeated by his former friend and tag team partner Shane Tallin, whom Magnum had previously cost the GEW International Championship. Magnum later regained the title, entering his third reign, and successfully held it until Extreme Extravaganza 2010 where he lost to Troy Gafgen in a fourway concrete cage match also involving Tallin and Thor. List of Champions Records *Most Reigns - Triple H - 11 *Longest Total Combined Reigns (Known Total) - James Magnum - 531 days *Heaviest Champion - Adam Cage - 295 lbs / 134 kg *Lightest Champion - Baby Dogg - 145 lbs / 66 kg List of Champions by Combined Reign Length Note that this table only covers those reigns for which the total number of days is known. World Heavyweight Championship Category:World Heavyweight Championships